Paleontology

Asteriornis: Belgian Wonderchicken Is A Missing Link Between Chickens, Ducks, And Dinosaurs

The oldest fossil of a modern bird yet found dates from the age of dinosaurs and was found in a limestone quarry near the Belgian-Dutch border, making it the first modern bird from the age of dinosaurs found in the northern hemisphere. ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2020 - 6:08pm

Hallstatt's Dachstein-Kalk Limestone Formation

The Hallstatt Limestone is the world's richest Triassic ammonite unit, yielding specimens of more than 500 ammonite species. Along with diversified cephalopod fauna — orthoceratids, nautiloids, ammonoids — we also see gastropods, bivalves, especially ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - May 2 2020 - 4:12pm

Kampecaris Obanensis: Move Over Nessie, Scotland Is Now Home To The World's Oldest Bug

A 425-million-year-old Kampecaris obanensis millipede fossil is the world's oldest "bug." It is older than any known fossil of an insect, arachnid or other related creepy-crawly and it was found on the Scottish island of Kerrera. It's a ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2020 - 10:57am

Batrachopus Grandis: Crocodille Ancestor Walked On Two Feet

Well-preserved footprints from the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation of South Korea, 110 million years ago, show that an ancestor of modern-day crocodiles, named Batrachopus grandis, walked on two feet. Palaeontologists knew that some crocodiles from the & ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 11 2020 - 5:24pm

Tuatara: 250 Million Year Old Dinosaur Relative Is Part Mammal And Part Reptile

Scientists have sequenced the genome of the tuatara, a single species reptile which originated in the Triassic period around 250 million years ago but is now only found in New Zealand, and it revealed an unusual architecture- it is mammal and reptile.  Its ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 6 2020 - 10:08am

Flying Dinosaurs: Anchiornithine Theropods As The Earliest Birds

A new paper supports the traditional relationship of dromaeosaurid ('raptors') and troodontid theropods as the closest relatives of birds, but also supports the status of the controversial anchiornithine theropods as the earliest birds. The autho ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 17 2020 - 11:07am

Mesozoic Birds of the Jehol Biota

The Fossil Birds of the Jehol Biota have caused an international stir amongst palaeontologists. The Jehol outcrops of northeastern China has unearthed some of the most important Mesozoic bird specimens worldwide over the past two decades. This is a tale o ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Oct 18 2020 - 6:27pm

How Dinosaurs Crossed The Oceans

The first fossils of a duckbilled dinosaur have been discovered in Africa, which means dinosaurs must have crossed miles of open water to get there. Ajnabia odysseus was found in Morocco and dates to the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago. Ajnabi ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 5 2020 - 1:25am

The Dinosaurs Of Ireland

Most of Ireland’s rocks are the wrong age for dinosaur fossils, either too old or too young. That doesn't mean dinosaurs weren't there, it means fossilization is a true anomaly and finding fossils makes it even more challenging to have hard evide ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 25 2020 - 12:49pm

Why Did It Take Dinosaurs 15 Million Years To Reach The Northern Hemisphere?

In the age of the dinosaurs, you could have walked from one pole to another. At that time, the continents were all joined together, forming the supercontinent Pangea.  Yet they didn't.Though sauropodomorph dinosaurs first appeared in Argentina and Bra ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 15 2021 - 4:38pm